Category: Match Reports

Defeat in their final game and with Barnes achieving a rare victory on the same day, Southgate, sadly, ended up bottom of the league and were finally relegated to the third division of the Middlesex County League.

Yet again, with important players missing, this time bowlers, Southgate needed a total of 240 or thereabouts to trouble Eastcote with their host of teenage stars.

Captain Phil Dunnett (34) and young Shiv (31) batted well with the latter staking his claim for a regular 1stXI place next year. Jamie Jouning (41*) steered the side to a respectable total of 199 with some of his trademark drives through and over extra cover, but a final total of 199 was never going to be enough with the weakened bowling attack available.

So it proved, and although James Dangerfield made an early breakthrough and Ravi Desai (4-43) was his usual skilful self, Eastcote reached their target comfortably.

Dunnett, as usual, led from the front and bowled five steady overs with the new ball. A couple of catches went down but the result was inevitable.

A difficult season for the Club ended in disappointment.

If we had won the eighth game of the season against Enfield when victory beckoned so loudly, Southgate would have won 4 out of 7 completed matches at that stage and been 3rdin the league.

Thereafter there was not one victory to celebrate despite four very, very, close finishes.

All credit to Phil Dunnett for his dedication during his two years as captain.

He has made a considerable contribution and you don’t always get what you deserve.

Nonetheless, this season he was the team’s leading run scorer with 435 runs at 33.46 and, with 28 victims, the leading wicketkeeper in all three divisions of the Middlesex League.

Top of the league Enfield were far too strong for a weakened Southgate side without two of their best players.

The home team were invited to bat and took advantage of perfect batting conditions and short boundaries.

The Enfield openers, Plumb and Edwards, brought back memories (for us older members) of Smith and Norville, a fine opening pair from the sixties and early seventies, who similarly plundered opposition attacks.

They added 269 for the first wicket, with only one chance given by Plumb when he had just 52, but otherwise they batted beautifully in totally different styles. Plumb, technically correct, Edwards, a mixture of extraordinary, powerful hits coupled with quite a few play and misses and the odd inside edge. Darragh Edwards was particularly unlucky early on against his namesake.

It was a difficult afternoon for Southgate but in a final total of 311-3, David Woffinden’s figures of 2-28 in nine overs stand out.

It was a hopeless task but an opening stand of 76, at 7 runs per over, between Luke Hutton (39) and Shoaib Zulfiqar (41) gave the tiniest glimmer of hope but it was not to be. Small contributions from Adeel (21), Jamie (14) and Phil Dunnett (21 not out) enabled the visitors to reach 130-3, but a collapse to 162 all out was, in reality, inevitable.

An interesting battle developed between captain Phil and his predecessor, Faisal Mir (3-42), with a certain amount of steam rising between the two. The latter made early inroads into the Southgate batting with three good wickets but was unable to achieve his main goal, as his overs ran out.

Enfield will hold their own in the Premier next season whilst sadly, Southgate are doomed for the third division.

Phil Dunnett (34) batted well with great levels of concentration, but at 70-8 hopes of a decent score had long gone. Phil was joined by Ed Harvey, who, for the second week running, made a good impression, this time with the bat, as he and Phil managed to slowly grind out an eventual total of 102.

It was clear at an early stage that the pitch was not up to standard, a point which the umpires duly noted in their post match reports.

Rashid (4-38) and another former Southgate player, Elech (3-8) were the main wicket-takers in an innings which, at the time, seemed totally inadequate.

An early wicket for Daragh Edwards gave a little hope but as the better Stanmore batsmen came to the wicket defeat, early on, seemed inevitable.

However, Dave Woffinden (2-20 in 8 overs) was his usual economical self and Ravi, although not quite at his best, was difficult to play, and Phil Dunnett took a magnificent catch, standing up, from a ball which lifted and turned.

Enter ‘golden b——-s’ , Michael Stevens, who, with his medium pace, has the tendency to take wickets at the least expected time.

So it was, and on this occasion it wasn’t just the odd wicket, it was a match-changing 5-19 in 7 overs. Coupled with two excellent catches this proved what a fine cricketer he is and he will undoubtedly have a large part to play, in all three disciplines, in the rest of this difficult season.

At 90-9, Rashid and Mukesh Bhatt, found themselves at the wicket, attempting to win the game against their old Club. With a few alarms, this they did, keeping Stanmore at the top of the table and leaving Southgate, still in dire trouble, second from bottom.

Winchmore Hill are ten points behind and they are now the only team genuinely within reach. This week, away to bottom club, Barnes.

A Southgate invitation XI made the trip to deepest Hertfordshire on Monday for the annual Hertgate Trophy match. With a mix of youth and experience, our instructions from Umpire Cole were to enjoy the day and to ensure a result. To that extent we delivered and many thanks to our hosts for an excellent game of cricket and some top-notch hospitality.

Hertford won the toss and elected to bat, their skipper welcoming us with a couple of crunching drives off the back foot through the covers before our opening attack of Daragh Edwards and James Dangerfield settled into a groove and brought the run rate back under control.

James made the initial breakthrough, a family affair with Jeremy enveloping an edge to gully before Shaun Dass took a fanastic catch at square cover to dismiss the Hertford skipper.

It was then trundle from both ends with Shaun Dass and Dave Woffinden seemingly competing for the title of slowest swinger in town. Meanwhile Ollie Bellwood was sharpening his pun game, extorting Woffers to bowl on the “woff” side.

There was time before lunch for William McLoughlin to hit his line and length straight away and for true allrounder (and usurped 2ndXI keeper) Bellwood to shake off the rust from his off spin.

At about 110 for 4 at lunch the game was nicely balanced, unlike the fielding side after a superb lunch and a particularly delicious, but lethargy inducing, apple pie and cream. William kept his focus and got his reward dismissing the dangerous number 6, to finish with a highly creditable 1-21 from his 6 overs to go with an electric performance in the field.

James and Darragh returned for second spells, with James picking up the top scoring Aussie before Woffers burgled three late wickets to dismiss Hertford for 226.

Southgate’s reply began in style with Ally Lynch and Christian McLoughlin (26) giving a perfect demonstration of how to put the fielding side under pressure by running hard, picking up singles at the slightest opportunity and putting away the bad ball. Facing up to Hertford’s 1stXI attack, Lynch ventured to the posh side (once on purpose) and also delivered the biggest hit of the day with his trademark slog sweep to the longest boundary, top scoring with a superb 71.

At the other end, Christian (fresh despite 55 overs behind the stumps in the mid-summer heat) provided the shot of the day – a crunching drive through the covers for four. We took tea on 124 for 1 and shortly afterwards we were treated to a scoop over short fine leg from Shaun Dass (25) that was worthy of an action replay.

We entered the last 20 overs with confidence, needing less than 5 an over with 8 wickets in hand, but Hertford bowled very tightly, their young off spinner bowling through to the close and thoroughly deserving his five wickets.

Kevin Shah fell to the returning 1stXI bowler and Harshil Vipani entertained briefly with dancing feet and lofted drives, before one adventure from the crease too many saw him stumped. At the other James Dangerfield (35*) was battling away, nurdling and striking boundaries to try to keep up with the run rate but Hertford held their catches and despite James’ best efforts we couldn’t pull off the 35 we needed from the last 3 overs.

A great day’s cricket, with contributions from everyone with the bat, ball and in the field.

It was déjà vu all over again as, for the second week running, Southgate succumbed to the wiles of two left arm spinners.

Earlier, Southgate had performed reasonably in the field and never lost focus in the sweltering conditions.

Wickets fell regularly to the usual variations of slow bowling, the off spin of Ravi Desai and the medium pace of Dave Woffinden and at 71-4 after 23 overs Southgate were in control.

On came Ed Harvey to bowl his first ball in 1stXI cricket and what a debut ball it was. Not unlike the recently famous ‘Adil Rashid’ ball, it pitched, turned and lifted and Phil Dunnett took a fine catch of a ‘ripper’ of a leg break.

So, at 95-5 after 33 overs Southgate had hopes for a quick completion of the Wycombe House innings but it was not to be and the sixth wicket pair added 71 in good time, facing the various skills of Ed Harvey, Ravi and Woffers with equal confidence.

During this period the Southgate fielding did not falter with Daragh Edwards outstanding in the deep and at 166 the sixth wicket pair and those batsmen that followed decided to commit hari kari and test the catching abilities of the visiting out-fielders. These proved infallible and all catches offered were held as the home side collapsed to 185 all out. Woffers finished with 4-50 and Harvey with 3-56.

The wicket was described as not great, but during the first part of the match it seemed to have a certain amount of bounce.

That seemed to disappear at tea-time as batsman after Southgate batsmen fell to balls which scurried rather than bounced.

Only Shoaib Zulfiqar, with a typically aggressive 36, batted with any confidence. Tom Edrich was bowled by a short ball, attempting a pull, deceived by the non-existent bounce, one or two batsmen played back when they might have played forward and a couple who did play forward were lbw, with the umpires confident that the ball would not have gone over the stumps!

Captain Dunnett, having earlier added three more victims to his season’s tally,

was unlucky, playing on, yes you’ve guessed it, to a ball which kept low.

So, a heavy defeat, with ten players scoring a total of 26 runs between them.

Southgate slipped into the relegation zone at The Walker Ground on Saturday when they were well beaten by Harrow St Marys, who are making a late bid for promotion to the Premier, and are currently in third place behind Stanmore and Enfield.

Shoaib (23) again started well but could not extend his innings into something more substantial and sadly Tom Edrich and Michael Stevens fell to the high quality visiting seam attack, successfully using the prevailing conditions.

When it was time to turn to spin two left arm spinners proved equally effective and wickets fell regularly.

Declan O’Leary, in his first 1stXI for some time, showed immense patience and compiled a gritty 38 off 99 balls and Phil Dunnett, again batted well to make 29 before he was out to the longest of long hops, caught at cover.

Unfortunately, seven players made a combined total of 15 runs altogether and it certainly seemed, after an extended tea, that 134 would not be enough.

And so it transpired although, despite an early wicket for Darragh Edwards, deceiving one opening bat with a slower ball, the next two batsmen set out to achieve their target by a rather circuitous route.

Deciding to treat David Woffinden with enormous respect (not undeserved, I hasten to add!) they rarely played an attacking shot off his canny bowling and by not taking any risks they negated his strengths. Although playing and missing a few times their careful plan worked and between them they made just 86 runs off 208 balls altogether, paving the way for the next two more attack minded batsmen to take advantage of the platform they had initiated.

Woffers finished with the extraordinary figures of 0-33 in 19.5 overs.

Southgate travelled to runaway leaders North Middlesex on the back of three consecutive defeats failing to defend decent totals, so it was a welcome change when captain J Dangerfield lost the toss and reported that we would be fielding first. Having 2 seam bowlers to open the bowling was also a novel change and H Thompson (6-0-35-2) and L Babwah (16-5-37-1) got us off to a great start, the former making 2 early inroads and the latter bowling with excellent control. Liam in particular bowled beautifully despite falling spectacularly delivering his first delivery and twice aborting his run up as flies crashed into his eyes. When deep into his spell he enticed their number 4 into edging to the skipper at first slip it was the very least he deserved.

W Khan (7-0-41-1) and R Johnson (4-0-24-0) bowled decent spells in the middle overs, but the star of the first innings was undoubtedly E Harvey (13-0-64-5) who bagged his first Southgate fifer with a wonderful spell, the highlight being a stumping given out by the home umpire who uses a shooting stool; the manner in which he perches at square leg gave a charming armchair umpire aesthetic to the dismissal. It was welcome reward for Ed who has bowled well in previous weeks without such success.

Tea was a decent spread.

With 2 games on at North Middlesex the boundaries were small all the way around (their keeper/captain had managed to hit a 6 that didn’t make it off the – admittedly vast – square) and it was still batting friendly conditions weatherwise even if the wicket was a touch soft and green. Chasing less than 5 per over didn’t seem overly daunting, but we would have to bat well and in partnerships.

Unfortunately that did not really transpire. M Hughes (11) and J Murray (20) made a decent start but fell in quick succession, shortly followed by M Joseph (4). C Edwards made a swift 17 and W Khan fell for 7 meaning that when R Johnson’s (2) desperate dive couldn’t prevent the ball from rolling back onto his stumps the score was 99-6 from 27 overs.

We rallied with S Ellis (54) playing in his usual swashbuckling manner and he was ably supported by L Babwah (27). Their partnership took our score beyond 150, but when Liam was stumped and Scott picked out a fielder at long off we found ourselves on 172-8 after 41 overs with J Dangerfield (48*) and E Harvey (24*) at the crease. With 70 needed from 54 balls and only 2 wickets in hand this pairing initially looked to consolidate and secure a draw and the extra point for passing 194.

However, as the North Middlesex field placing became increasingly attacking, Jez and Ed counter punched. Some entertaining strokeplay saw the ball flailed to all parts and in the final 5 overs 48 runs were scored. The last over saw us requiring 23 to win and with North Middlesex fielders scattered to all parts it was clear that we were now the only side that might get maximum points. Some tremendous hitting from Jez got us needing 13 from the last 2 balls and a 6 followed by a 4 meant we fell 3 runs short of an unlikely victory.

We can certainly take confidence from the fact that we took 1 more wicket and scored 2 fewer runs than the side 30 points clear at the top and thus the gap between us and everyone else isn’t as big as the league table makes it look. But there was a feeling of what might have been. If one of the top 5 had converted a start we might’ve had a memorable win to celebrate.

From a distance, however, it was an honour to watch a potential superstar in action with the advent of 15 year old, Atharva Prasad, who scored a magnificent 164. His innings was quite extraordinary for someone so young and it was a shame that Mark Ramprakash, who made a fleeting visit to the ground later on, was not able to see the innings, but no doubt he is already in the eyes of the County.

One particular shot, late in the innings, when he smote Luke Hutton for six off the front foot, over extra cover with elbow high, to a ball fractionally short of a length, will live in the memory.

Southgate never wilted in the heat but it clearly had its effect on the early batsmen, because, apart from Shoaib Zulfiqar, who scored a quickfire 31, the score after 20 overs was 78-5, with captain Dunnett also off the pitch with a badly damaged wrist, effectively the sixth wicket.

Then another near cricketing miracle occurred, of a rather different kind, as Shaun Dass (83*) and Darragh Edwards (53*) batted through 33 overs, over two hours, to save the game for their team.

Eastcote tried everything, leg spin, a mini-bouncer barrage from their quickest bowler (the one who injured Phil) and their captain even tried some old-fashioned ‘lob’ bowling and nearly succeeded as Darragh became a little confused, but a quick word from Shaun and he settled down.

As Eastcote brought their fielders closer and closer to try to trap the pair, they each responded by hitting a series of sixes towards the end of the innings.

A really remarkable stand by two young players which secured a point for their team but more importantly stopped the home team from obtaining ten points which would have put them within distance of Southgate in the league.

The stand of 137 equalled the highest ever Southgate 1stXI League 6thwicket stand between Matt Creese and Stuart Tohill against Stanmore in 1999.

Some defeats are more difficult to take than others and this match at The Walker Ground on Saturday was definitely very, very difficult to take.

The home team made a good start with Tom Edrich taking advantage of some poor bowling by the Enfield opening bowler bowling down the hill.

The bowler from the other end however, was an extremely steady medium pacer taking advantage of a slightly helpful pitch. Tom was caught behind and Mike Stephens was brilliantly caught at slip first ball, so from a healthy 27-0 the game changed dramatically.

Shoaib Zulfiqar (31), Alvin Durgacharran (18) and Jamie Jouning (23) steered the team to a reasonable situation but with Luke Hutton out quickly to a leading edge, at 100-6 the picture looked bleak. But captain Phil Dunnett chose this local derby to play a superb innings and with the Enfield seamer tiring, finishing his spell after 20 overs and six wickets, Phil (73) with the help of debutant Ed Harvey (12) was able to steer his team to a very respectable total.

The Enfield innings began with a somewhat bizarre opening over from Darragh Edwards as two difficult chances were put down, but veteran Tilley succumbed to the wiles of Woffinden in the second over.

Enfield’s two top batsmen, Plumb (averaging 57) and Hassan (averaging 86) now came together and this was clearly the vital battle of the match. However they both fell early, Hassan being brilliantly caught by Dunnett standing up to Woffers down the leg side and Plumb, unable to bat with his normal ease, became impatient and was well caught by Luke Hutton.

The score was now 32-3 off 14 overs which became 57-4 in the 20thover.

Ravi Desai joined the attack from the top end and although not quite at his best, he snared two batsmen as Dunnett made two stumpings, one of which was from a beautiful arm ball which followed a few orthodox off spinners.

Classical off-spin bowling.

Michael Stephens took over from Woffinden (3-51) and took his usual quick wicket, another brilliant stumping from Dunnett, and when the Enfield quick bowler, Arthur George, joined the Enfield number 8 the visitors were certainly in the mire at 100-8. Almost immediately George offered a simple catch which was not accepted by arguably the best catcher in the team and the pair took their team to the brink of victory. Phil picked up another catch to dismiss George, completing a remarkable personal game with six victims and 73 runs but it was not to be as the Enfield number 8 belied his career league batting average of 14 to secure victory for his latest club.

Last week at Twickenham we secured our first win of the season with an excellent team performance but sadly at home to Highgate this week, we played poorly and lost by 89 runs.

At Twickenham on a used wicket, we were put in and despite losing Alvin and Waqas early, a positive stand of 90 between Max (70) and Jez (52) put us in a strong position at 140-2. A middle order collapse followed but Pranay (46 not out) and Coxy (13) added a priceless unbroken 69 in 11 overs and we declared at the half way mark with 234 on the board.

Pranay then fired up his bowling boots and with Luke (and an excellent catch at slip by Alv) reduced Twickenham to 35-4. What a joy to have two quality opening bowlers running in!! Coxy’s full bunger caught and bowled put us in the box seat at 62-5 but as we know from recent years, Twickenham’s tail can wag! And wag it did!

At 144-5 the game was in the balance. Pranay returned to take two wickets and again with Luke, stemmed the flow of runs to put us back in control. A wicket from Coxy (Ollie’s 3rd catch behind) and two from Sage saw us home with 4.2 overs to spare.

At home to Highgate on Saturday I found myself in the rare position (2nd time all season) of winning the toss. The wicket looked green and grassy so I went with gut instinct and decided to field. In hindsight, I probably should have stuck with the winning formula from Twickenham and batted but hindsight blah blah blah…..

We welcomed back Tristan, Declan O’ Leary and a special guest appearance from Dan Ashley (many thanks for playing Danno) and started well with Tristan running in down the hill and Waqas (3-38 off 12) bowling a great line from the Waterfall Rd end. Highgate we’re struggling at 39-2 off 13 but a combination of good running between the wickets and some poor fielding let them off the hook.

Fortunately the catching improved and we pegged them back towards the end of the innings. Their batting didn’t look particularly deep (if only I’d know that at the toss!). They boldly declared after 50 overs at 212-8.

Our chase was steady at the start (Declan 33, Max 30) and at 74-1 off 20 we were very much in it. The introduction of 48 year old seamer Steve Blyghton changed the game and with a tidy off spinner down the hill, we soon collapsed to 97-4 (apologies to the team for my very poor shot) and then 116-8.

Ollie, Coxy and Sage put up a brave fight to save the game in the last 12 overs but with 3.3 overs the resistance was broken. They batted and bowled better than us but there are still plenty of games to go and with better availability I have every confidence we can pick up the necessary points to stay in this division.